DataStreme ECS WEEK THREE: 15-19 February 2010

ITEMS OF INTEREST

• Establishment of NOAA Climate Service is officially proposed -- Early last week, US Commerce Secretary Gary Locke announced the department's intention to create a NOAA Climate Service line office that would bring climate research and climate services to a more local scale. This service would work in partnership with Regional Climate Offices and State Climate Offices to provide information about climate change to the public as well as decision-makers, including those with the US Navy's Task Force Climate Change. [NOAA News] (Editor's note: The new NOAA Climate Services as a revised website at http://www.noaa.gov/climate and a NOAA Climate Portal at http://www.climate.gov/ . EJH) [NOAA News]
• Next year's NOAA budget proposed by the President --
At the beginning of February, President Obama released his proposed Fiscal Year 2011 budget for NOAA, in which he requested $5.6 billion to run the agency and further its commitment to the mission of protecting lives and property, sustaining the oceanic and atmospheric environment, continuing scientific research and the promotion of economic development. Several key items include funding for enhanced aviation weather forecasts, strengthening of climate science and climate change research and the support of programs to improve the nation's coastal environment. [NOAA News]
• Snow in 49 states --
A rare snowstorm that traveled across the Gulf Coast States at the end of last week resulted in snow covering a part of every state in the nation with the exception of Hawaii as of Saturday afternoon. The Florida Panhandle received snow. Such an event in which nearly every state in the nation had a snow cover is also relatively rare. [USA Today]
• Mardi Gras climatology
-- With the observance of Ash Wednesday this week, the famous Mardi Gras celebration in New Orleans, LA will conclude the day before on "Fat Tuesday" or Shrove Tuesday (16 February 2010). The New Orleans/Baton Rouge WSFO has posted a "Mardi Gras climatology" that provides summary tables of the normals and the extremes that have been observed in New Orleans for the last 136 years during the mid February [New Orleans/Baton Rouge WSFO]
• Southeast Asian wildfires located from space --
An image obtained last week from the MODIS sensor on NASA's Aqua satellite shows the location of numerous wildfires across Burma (Myanmar), Thailand, Laos and Vietnam from the infrared energy radiating from the fires. These wildfires often occur during the current dry monsoon season across Southeast Asia. [NASA Earth Observatory]
• Shuttle topographic mission marks tenth anniversary --
Two radar antennae that were carried on eleven-day mission aboard the Space Shuttle Endeavor in February 2000 collected high resolution topographic data from nearly 80 percent of the Earth's land surfaces as part of the international Shuttle Radar Topography Mission. Some of the data were collected from regions usually obscured from satellite observation by persistent cloud cover. Currently, NASA is combining the data from this mission along with data collected from the Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer to produce a global digital elevation model. [NASA JPL]

CURRENT CLIMATE STATUS

• State and city weather extremes for January 2010 -- The National Climatic Data Center (NCDC) has posted a listing of some of the notable extremes in temperature, precipitation and other weather elements across the nation for the recently completed month of January in "Selected U.S. City and State Extremes for January 2010." Note that this site may be updated during the following several weeks as more data are received and analyzed.

CURRENT CLIMATE MONITORING

• Annual and January drought reports -- The National Climate Data Center have posted its 2009 annual and January 2010 drought reports online. Using the Palmer Drought Severity Index, approximately nine percent of the coterminous United States experienced severe to extreme drought conditions at the end of January, while 26 percent of the area had severely to extremely wet conditions. Using the Palmer Drought Severity Index as a gauge, the size of the moderate to extreme drought that covered the coterminous United States decreased from approximately 27 percent in February 2009 to 16 percent in July, before expanding to nearly 22 percent in early autumn, with a decrease to 12 percent at the end of December 2009. By the end of January 2010, approximately three percent of the Lower 48 experienced severe to extreme drought conditions, while 27 percent of the area had severely to extremely wet conditions.
• An All-Hazards Monitor--This Web portal provides the user information from NOAA on current environmental events that may pose as hazards such as tropical weather, fire weather, marine weather, severe weather, drought and floods. [NOAAWatch]
• Global and US Hazards/Climate Extremes --
A review and analysis of the global impacts of various weather-related events, including drought, floods and storms during the current month. [NCDC]

CLIMATE FORCING

• Large volcanic eruption occurs in Caribbean -- The Soufriere Hills volcano on the Caribbean island of Montserrat experienced a "partial dome collapse" late last week in which hot gases and rocks flowed toward sparsely populated sections of the island. In addition, a plume of ash was sent up to altitudes of at least 50,000 feet. [The Weather Channel] [Montserrat Volcano Observatory]
• Submarine volcano erupts -- A false-color image produced by the Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) on NASA’s Terra satellite shows the ash and steam plumes along with the discolored ocean waters due to the eruption of the submarine volcano Fukutoku-Okanoba in the western North Pacific south of the main Japanese islands earlier this month. [NASA Earth Observatory]
• Solar activity images captured by spacecraft --
A movie of images taken by NASA's twin STEREO (Solar TErrestrial RElations Observatory) spacecraft during the last week of January shows small coronal mass ejections or several fiery arcs of plasma moving along magnetic field lines just above the surface of the Sun. [NASA Earth Observatory]
• Ocean waves may have triggered Antarctic ice shelf collapse --
A team of scientists from Scripps Institution of Oceanography, Princeton University and the University of Chicago claims that ocean swell generated by storms over the North Pacific waters appear to have produced large waves that battered the Antarctic ice shelves, resulting in their catastrophic collapse. The storm-generated ocean swell traveled across the Pacific and broke along the along the Pacific coasts of North and South America. [Scripps News]

CLIMATE IMPACTS ON THE BIOSPHERE

• Investigating the impact of mercury on Arctic snow -- University of Michigan researchers have been tracking the movement of the chemical element mercury through Arctic ecosystems by a natural "fingerprinting" process called isotopic fractionation, in which different isotopes of mercury react to form new compounds at slightly different rates. They found that the gaseous form of mercury in the atmosphere is carried by winds over the Arctic basin, where following oxidation and reaction with bromine, a reactive mercury compound is deposited onto the snow and sea ice cover. Ultimately, the mercury becomes ingested into the food chain as methylmercury. [University of Michigan News Service]
• Earlier spring weather may put nature out of step --
A team of scientists from 12 research institutions and conservation organizations in the United Kingdom studying long-term pheonological records of plants and animals report that the recent trend toward earlier spring and summer weather across the British Isles appear to have caused the seasonal timing of reproduction and population growth of many species to occur earlier and at an accelerated rate. [EurekAlert!]
• More than a third of the planet's surface is in danger of desertification --
Researchers at Spain's Institute of Agro Food Research and Technology using a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) methodology and a Geographic Information System (GIS) have found that eight of 15 "eco-regions", which represent 38 percent of the world's land surface, are in danger of desertification. These regions include coastal areas, the Mediterranean region, prairies savannas, steppes and deserts across temperate, subtropical and tropical regions. [EurekAlert!]

CLIMATE FORECASTS

• Climate "tipping points" could arrive without warning -- A ecological forecaster at the University of California-Davis warns that sudden changes in the Planet Earth's systems due to changes in climate that would disastrously force the system beyond what are called "tipping points" could occur with little warning. One of the tipping points that he envisions would be the complete disappearance of summertime Arctic sea ice. He bases his conclusions upon mathematical models that he and a colleague developed to study natural systems. [University of California-Davis]

PALEOCLIMATE RECONSTRUCTION

• Quaternary sea level reconstruction models are challenged -- Researchers from the University of Iowa, the University of South Florida, Spain's Universitat de les Illes Balears and Italy's University of Rome III are questioning the theories about the rates of ice accumulation and ablation during the Quaternary Period (the most recent 2.6 million years). From their research on speleothem encrustations found in coastal caves on the Mediterranean island of Mallorca, they found ancient sea levels at approximately 81,000 years ago were much higher than previously thought, because of rapid ice melting. [University of Iowa News Service]
• Ancient ocean chemistry suggests chemically layered waters --
Biogeochemists from the University of California-Riverside, Washington University in St. Louis, the California Institute of Technology and the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing have developed a dynamic three-dimensional model of the planetary ocean chemistry during the Precambrian's Ediacaran Period (635-551 million years ago) that indicates the ancient ocean water columns appear to have been chemically stratified. Oxygen rich waters may have been near the surface and oxygen deprived iron-dominated deep waters, separated by a sulfidic water wedge. Their stratified marine basin model aids in understanding early animal evolution on Earth. [EurekAlert!]

CLIMATE AND SOCIETY

• Website for human dimensions of climate change -- An interagency effort within the US federal government that included NOAA, the Bureau of Land Management and the US Forest Service, has resulted in a website called HD.gov (for HumanDimensions.gov) that provides users, such as natural resource managers, with information on the human dimensions on a variety of topics of interest such as climate change. [HD.gov]
• Earthweek --
Diary of the Planet [earthweek.com] Requires Adobe Acrobat Reader.

Concept of the Week: Calendars and Seasons

Humans have used the idea of time to mark past experiences and anticipate future happenings. To quantify time, we have traditionally used observable periodic natural phenomena, such as the daily and yearly paths of the apparent sun through the sky and the monthly phases of the moon. As we saw in the Case-In-Point for Chapter 3, ancients in northern Europe, North America and elsewhere had developed astronomical calculators that located the sun's path at certain key dates during the year.

The sun is especially important as its uneven heating distribution drives Earth's climate system. The orbital points of the solstices and equinoxes define portions of the year in terms of the solar input into the Earth's energy balance, yielding the so-called astronomical seasons. From the viewpoint of the astronomical seasons, we are more than half way through astronomical winter in the Northern Hemisphere, which started on the Winter Solstice (21 December 2009) and which will continue until the passage of the Vernal Equinox on 20 March 2010.

Similar to the astronomical seasons, we can define meteorological/climatological seasons that are meant to fit our calendar as well as the temperature cycle. With this designation, we are approaching the end of winter, which is defined as the three calendar months of December, January and February, centered on the coldest part of the year usually during the third week of January. Looking ahead, meteorological "spring", consisting of the months March, April and May, marks the transition season between the year's coldest and warmest portions of the year. Often, climate scientists usually compare January and July atmospheric conditions to represent the coldest and warmest months, respectively. We can also have monthly and seasonal averages and records. This information is useful for agriculture, commerce and other purposes.

Concept of the Week: Questions

(Each week you will be asked to respond to two questions relating to that week's Concept of the Week topic. Place your responses on the Chapter Progress Response Form provided in the Study Guide.)

1. The month was originally based upon cycles of the [(sun)(moon)].
2. From 12:47 PM EST on 21 December 2009 through 28 February 2010, the Northern Hemisphere will be in its [(astronomical winter) (climatological winter)(both)] season(s).

Historical Events:

• 15 February 1936...The temperature at Parshall, ND plunged to 60 degrees below zero to establish a state record low temperature. On the 6^th of July that same year, the temperature at Steele, ND hit 121 degrees, also a state record high temperature. (David Ludlum)
• 16 February 1903...The temperature at Pokegama Dam, MN plunged to 59 degrees below zero to establish a state record. (David Ludlum) This record has since been broken with a 60 degree below reading in 1996. (NCDC)
• 16 February 1929…Britain's greatest snowfall of 70.9 inches fell in just 15 hours at Dartmoor, Great Britain. (The Weather Doctor)
• 16 February 1943...Record cold prevailed in the northeastern U.S. The morning low of 32 degrees below zero at Falls Village, CT established a state record, yet the afternoon high that day was 20 degrees above zero. In January 1961, this Connecticut record low was tied. (David Ludlum) (The Weather Channel)
• 16 February 1966...Heavy rain fell in Whenuapai, New Zealand, with 4.2 inches of rain falling in one hour, a new record for that time in New Zealand. (The Weather Doctor)
• 16 February 1989...A surge of arctic air produced all-time record high barometric pressure readings of 31.08 inches at Duluth, MN, 30.97 inches at Chicago, IL and 30.94 inches at South Bend, IN. Readings of 31.00 inches at Milwaukee, WI and 30.98 inches at Rockford, IL tied their all-time records. (The National Weather Summary)
• 16 February 1996...A coastal storm produced heavy snow along the East Coast to push seasonal snowfall totals to new records at several locations. The following cities set new all-time seasonal snowfall records: Lynchburg, VA (8.1 inches new, 51.3 inches seasonal total); Washington/Dulles, VA (7.5, 53.4) ; Washington/National, DC (6.8, 40.8); Baltimore, MD (9.8, 54.9); Philadelphia, PA (7.5, 55.9); Hartford/Bradley, CT (10.3, 90.2) and Providence, RI (7.0, 78.0). (Intellicast)
• 17 February 1748…The temperature at Charleston, SC fell to 10 degrees, the lowest temperature ever recorded in the Colonial South. (The Weather Doctor)
• 17 February 1926…A deadly avalanche, Utah's worst, demolished 14 miner's cottages and a three-story boarding house in Binham Canyon. Thirty-six are killed and 13 injured. (The Weather Doctor)
• 17 February 1936...The temperature at McIntosh, SD plunged to 58 degrees below zero to establish a state record low temperature. (David Ludlum)
• 17 February 1974…Lakelse Lake, British Columbia received 46.5 inches of snow over 24 hours, Canada's greatest 24-hour snowfall on record that stood for nearly one quarter of a century until 57 inches fell in 24 hours at Tahtsa Lake, British Columbia on 11 February 1999. (The Weather Doctor)
• 17-18 February 2003…The President's Day snowstorm set a new Boston, MA record for the greatest snowstorm total snowfall: a total of 27.5 inches. (The Weather Doctor)
• 18 February 1899...While much of the central and eastern U.S. was recovering from the most severe cold wave of modern history, the temperature at San Francisco, CA soared to 80 degrees to establish a record for month of February. (David Ludlum)
• 18 February 1959...Some of the higher elevations of California were in the midst of a five-day storm that produced 189 inches of snow, a single storm record for North America. (13^th-19^th) (David Ludlum)
• 18 February 1966…The temperature at Winnipeg, Manitoba dropped to 49 degrees below zero, the city's lowest recorded temperature. (The Weather Doctor)
• 18 February 1979...The record low temperature for the state of New York was set at Old Forge when the temperature plummeted to 52 degrees below zero. (Intellicast)
• 18 February 1996…Cuba's coldest morning on record occurred when the temperature at Bainoa, Cuba dropped to 33 degrees. (The Weather Doctor)
• 19 February 1998…The temperature at Mardie, Western Australia reached 122.9 degrees, the second highest temperature ever recorded in Australia. (The Weather Doctor)
• 20 February 1974…The mean wind speed at Bonilla Island, British Columbia was 89 mph, the highest sustained speed on record in British Columbia. (The Weather Doctor)
• 20 February 1995...The temperature at the Civic Center in Los Angeles, CA hit 95 degrees for the highest temperature ever recorded for the month of February. (Intellicast)
• 21 February 1918...A spectacular chinook wind at Granville, ND caused the temperature to spurt from a morning low of 33 degrees below zero to an afternoon high of 50 degrees above zero, representing a rise of 83 Fahrenheit degrees. (David Ludlum)
• 21 February 1971...Elk City, OK was buried under 36 inches of snow to establish a 24-hour snowfall record for the Sooner State. (David Ludlum)
• 21 February 1996...Very hot weather for the time of year prevailed across South Texas. All-time February high temperatures were set at Del Rio (103 degrees), San Antonio (100 degrees), Austin and College Station (99 degrees), and Waco (96 degrees). (Intellicast)

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Prepared by Edward J. Hopkins, Ph.D., email hopkins@meteor.wisc.edu
© Copyright, 2010, The American Meteorological Society.